The Kerala High Court on Friday dismissed a plea by the three accused persons in the Elanthoor human sacrifice case, challenging the Magistrate Court order granting police the custody of the accused for 12 days.
While dismissing the plea by the accused, a single bench of Justice Kauser Edappagath observed that the Magistrate Court had passed the order granting police custody with “great care and caution”.
The Court further found merit with the submissions made by the prosecution that, “the accused persons cannot dictate in what manner investigation has to be carried out”.
“As Director General of Prosecution rightly pointed out, the accused cannot dictate how the investigation should be carried out. I see no impropriety of illegality in the impugned order and, therefore this revision petition is dismissed,” the court said.
The gruesome murder of two women purportedly for human sacrifice, has shocked the people of Kerala”, the Court observed, while dismissing the petition.
The Court has however, permitted the accused to meet their lawyer for 15 minutes every alternate days. But , it has been expressly stipulated that the presence of such lawyers would not be permitted during interrogation of the accused in police custody.
The High Court passed the order after hearing the Criminal Revision Petition moved by Mohammed Shafi, Bhagval Singh and Laila, the three accused in the Elanthoor human sacrifice case.
The accused had moved the High Court against the order of the Judicial First Class Magistrate Court VIII, Ernakulam, which permitted the police to take the accused persons in custody for 12 days.
In their plea, the petitioners contended that the entire prosecution case is false and built on wrong information bolstered by inadmissible evidence, that would not stand up to scrutiny.
The petitioners alleged that the police have been leaking information to the media even after the FIR was forwarded to the Magistrate, thereby breaking rules of conduct and putting undue pressure on the trial court. They further claimed that the information being leaked to the media is defaming their dignity.
In a shocking incident that numbed human conscience, two cases of suspected ‘Narabali’ (‘human sacrifice’) as part of black magic ritual purported to bring prosperity and wealth to a family was reported during the second week of October from Elanthoor near Thiruvalla in Kerala’s Pathanamthitta district
Two women had been allegedly abducted, killed and buried as part of a ritualistic sacrifice by the three accused persons, Muhammed Shafi alias Rasheed, Bhagaval Singh and his wife Laila.
The police arrested Mohammed Shafi for allegedly arranging the abduction and committing the sacrificial murder. The other accused, Bhagaval Singh and his wife Laila, were also taken into custody for suspicion of having commissioned and taken part in the sacrificial murder.